Square Enix vs The Fans
by sdkorin
Summary: What happens when Square Enix crushes the hopes and dreams of the fan community?


Square Enix vs. The Fans

"Death to the mystics' enemies," is a classic line from one of the 1990s most loved role-playing games, _Chrono Trigger_. For those who grew up in the '90s and spent their free time planted in front of their cathode ray tubes playing the Super Nintendo, _Chrono Trigger _is one of those very fond memories that cannot be replaced by the advent of the 3D generation. This goes to show why IGN placed _Chrono Trigger_ in the number 13 spot of its Top 100 Games of All Time list in 2005 and has made it into the top 20 every year IGN had done the list (IGN). With _Chrono Trigger's_ vast popularity, it is no wonder that thousands of devoted fans write fan fictions based of the game and characters. However what happens when a fan group goes beyond simply writing a fan fiction and creates a game that builds on the story, like a fan fiction, but uses the original game data as its framework? Simply put, what happens is the very company that has created this magnificent game shuts them down. Everyone wants to protect they're intellectual property, but at what point does it seem that a companies use of copyright is more about limiting the fans than it is about protection of a property? The measure of a company should not only be about the products that they produce, but as to how they treat the very consumer that buys their product.

_Chrono Trigger_ is a console role-playing game that was developed and published in 1995 by the company then known simply as Square Co. It followed the time traveling exploits of the silent protagonist, Crono, and his group of friends that he had gathered from different points in time. The main antagonist was, Lavos, a being from outer space that crashed into the earth in 65 million BC and brought an end to the Reptites, _Chrono Trigger's_ more intelligent version of dinosaurs, and brought about the beginnings of magic. It just so happens that in the year 1999 AD, Lavos emerges from the depth of the earth and bring about the "Day of Lavos" which is basically the end of the world. It is up to Crono and company to stop the ensuing cataclysm from happening. _Chrono Trigger_ is one of the very first games to utilize at concept of multiple ending. Basically, the player has the ability to achieve one of twelve endings in the original SNES game, depending on what point in the game the player defeats Lavos. The game utilizes a feature called "New Game +" to help the player get each ending. New Game + is achieved after the player has beaten the game at least once and allows to player to import his characters statistics from the completed game into a new game. The level and all the equipment from the completed game is then brought into the new game to give the player a significant advantage early on and allowing the player to choose where in the game he or she would like to beat it. This, of course, allowing the player to get all of the endings, vastly increasing the games replay value.

In 1996 Square released _Radical Dreamers_ as a sequel to _Chrono Trigger_. _Radical Dreamers_ would however never see the light of day in the American market do to it being released on the SNES add-on "Satellaview" a satellite based system that was never brought to the USA. However, _Radical Dreamers_ would soon be considered officially non-canonical to the Chrono world with the release of the _Chrono Trigger_ sequel, _Chrono Cross_ in 1999. _Chrono Cross_ took some of the characters from _Radical Dreamers_ and re-imagined them in this new game. This effectively made _Radical Dreamers_ non-canonical to the base Chrono series. This however would mark the last sequel in the Chrono series for over a decade.

Square Enix seems to have an affinity to milking a franchise for everything it is worth. That is at least true for _Chrono Trigger._ Since 1995, there have been two direct ports of the game onto other systems. In 1999, the same year they released _Chrono Cross_, Square released a port of _Chrono Trigger_ onto the Playstation. Then again in 2008 they released another port on to the Nintendo DS, this time with a new fourteenth ending and a new dungeon. These efforts by Square Enix were valiant and welcomed by the _Chrono Trigger _community, but were not enough to stave off the fans real need for a sequel to the series.

Two fan groups made efforts to give the fans the playable fix they needed to hold back their Chrono needs. These groups were Resurrection Games and Kajar Laboratories. The cravings of the community were calling and these fan groups came to the rescue, or at least they tried to. Both groups received Cease and Desist letters from Square Enix during the production of their respective games.

Resurrection Games began their efforts in the early 2000s by attempting to create a _Chrono Trigger_ remake for the Nintendo 64, simply names _Chrono Trigger 64_. This remake was to be the first attempt by the group to create a fully 3D _Chrono Trigger _game. However in 2003 their ambitions made them scrap the Nintendo 64 project and begin what became known as _Chrono Trigger: Resurrection_ or _Chrono Resurrection_. This new project had better 3D graphics and would be PC based instead of a cartridge for the 64 (Zeypher). Square Enix rightfully saw this project, with its superior graphics to the original Chrono Trigger as competition to its own game. Therefore a Cease and Desist letter was issued to Resurrection Games and the project was scrapped.

Was Square Enix justified in issuing this Cease and Desist letter? _Chrono Resurrection_ can clearly be seen as a game that would compete with any 16 bit port released by Square Enix. A free remake of _Chrono Trigger_ would no doubt cut into Square Enix's revenue were they to release another port, which they later did. A Cease and Desist letter in this situation does in fact seem justified. However it is not so clear cut with Kajar Laboratories sequel _Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes_, which uses the original game to expand on the _Chrono Trigger_ world.

Fans have a long history of expanding on the original games of developers. This is even encouraged by developers. Games like _Diablo, Warcraft and Tron 2.0_ are games that fall into this category. _Tron 2.0_ is a modern-day sequel to the 1982 classic _TRON_ (Tron). Fans and game reviewer received the game well enough, but support for the game dried up in 2005 and that's when the fans took over. Several patches and expansions have been made for that game with no ill effects felt from the developer at all. These expansions and patches have all been created using the original data from the game (All). Why has this been okay? This is most likely due to the fact that the fans do not make money or attempt to sell their creations.

Selling _Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes_ was never part of Kajar Laboratories plan while creating the game. Kajar Laboratories hacked a ROM of the original _Chrono Trigger_, which enabled them to access the original game data and manipulate the events of the game. This allowed them to make any changes they desired in the game while still keeping the aesthetics of the original. Kajar Laboratories was set to release a whole new game that bridged the gap between _Chrono Trigger_ and _Chrono Cross_ on May 31st, 2009 (ZeaLitY). However, on May 9th, 2009, with only weeks to go until their release of the game, Kajar Laboratories received a Cease and Desist letter from Square Enix (Square)

In the letter Square Enix states its demands for Kajar Laboratories, "We herby request and demand that you immediately remove, take down, delete and destroy all work product on CT:CE…". They go on to quote two laws in their letter. The first was "17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2)" in which basically states that the infringer would owe the copyright owner money regardless if they meant to infringe or not, depending on the courts ruling (17). The second, and much more relevant law quoted by Square Enix was "17 U.S.C. § 1201". The United States Code states that, "(a) Violations Regarding Circumvention of Technological Measures. — (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title" (17).

By using the program Temporal Flux to gain access to _Chrono Trigger_, Kajar Laboratories did in fact violate this law. No one is arguing the fact that Square Enix is well within their rights to issue Kajar Laboratories a Cease and Desist letter. What is argued is whether or not it was truly necessary.

It can be said the circumventing copyright protection in itself is more then enough cause to take any kind of legal action. Copyright protection is put in place for a reason and should not be tampered with. This protection would not be put in place if legal action was not meant to be taken if it were broken. Still, is it really worth all the legal effort to go after a group that never planned on making money off of their game and really had no way of taking away from the revenue of Square Enix? It can also be said that Square Enix knew that by issuing a Cease and Desist letter groups like Kajar Laboratories would not have the monetary means to fight a company like Square Enix and no further actions would ever really need to be taken.

You can ultimately look at _Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes_ as a fan fiction. It is however, a fan fiction that you can play. There are over 700 _Chrono Trigger_ fan fiction stories on the website (Chrono). A playable fan fiction was the intent, and it is understood that when push comes to shove, an official _Chrono Trigger_ sequel will win out with the fans and their wallets any day.

At the bottom of the Cease and Desist letter issued to Kajar Laboratories there is a phone number to Square Enix in California. Attempts were made to get Square Enix's side of this very intruding story. After being transferred to two different people and speaking with the Legal Department of Square Enix the only results of this investigation were them taking down an email address and saying their Public Relations Department would have to address the issue. This was three weeks ago and there has been no response. One can only speculate on the over all motivations behind the Cease and Desist letters and simply refer to the laws quoted in them.

From a fan standpoint it should be that as long as a fan group is not making money from projects that they create then there shouldn't be a problem. When a superior product is created that can clearly compete with the original, legal action is justified. Some developers give the fans the means to build on their creations, yet Square Enix sends Cease and Desist letters. It seems that these fan communities would be great recruiting groups for future employees. Yet they crush the very people that could potentially be their future moneymakers. The measure of this company should not sit solely on the products that they create, but also on how they treat their consumers and potential future employees. What is the point in shutting there projects down? Without a clear answer from Square Enix, we can simply conclude that it is because they can.

Works Cited

17 USC Sec. 1201. 1998. Print

17 USC Sec. 504. 1998. Print

"All TRON 2.0 Files In One Place." _TRON 2.0 News_. 13 Feb. 2006. Web. 21 Mar. 2011.

"Chrono Trigger FanFiction Archive." . Web. 22 Mar. 2011.

IGN. "IGN's Top 100 Games." _IGN Top 100 Games 2005_. 2005. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.

Resurrection Games. _Chrono Trigger: Resurrection_. 09 July 2004. Web. 02 Mar. 2011.

Square Enix."Re: Cease and Desist: Chrono Compendium, Crimson Echoes." El Segundo. May 9, 2009. Web. 01 Mar. 2011

"Tron 2.0 for PC." _Disney Interactive Studios_. Buena Vista Games. Web. 21 Mar. 2011.

ZeaLitY. _Crimson Echoes_. 06 May 2009. Web. 01 Mar. 2011.

Zeypher. "Chrono Resurrection." _Chronopedia_. Wikia, 23 June 2010. Web. 01 Mar. 2011.


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